He is serving as both the character designer and animation director for the upcoming Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Impure King Arc anime.
He has also worked as an animation director or key animator on the anime series Reideen, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings, and xxxHOLiC.
Tanaka started at the anime studio Artland on the Princess Nine series in 1998 before going freelance as a character designer.
More recently he served as character designer and chief animation director for The Anthem of the Heart, and he served as the character designer for Makoto Shinkai’s your name. film, which opened in Japan last week.